Champion News

EDINBURGH—December 23, 2016

Chocolate Marzi-Cherries being prepared for the Solstice Feast.

        The Winter Solstice came with a celebration of darkness and light and with great feasting and merry making.  The shortest day of the year (quite short in Edinburgh–just 6 hours 39 minutes) brought new acquaintances and old friends together with wonderful food, sterling conversation, laughter and music.  Next comes Christmas day….that day that looms as the most important day of the year….the one that has all the memories attached to it and all the hopes for peace and good will to all men (and women).  Hopes from here to there are that all your Champion expectations are well met.  Merry Christmas!

        The Prominent Champion Girlfriend writes to say that the weather will be good for Christmas Day in Champion, “raining but up in the 60s, so I’m happy.”  She reported that the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department Firefighters and their families all got together for a Christmas party at the Pizza Hut and had a great time laughing and eating.  She also said that the Wednesday gathering at the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in downtown Champion was wonderful with lots of Christmas goodies for the 25 or so who attended.  She sent pictures of the beautiful tables of cakes and special snacks.  Champions know how to have a good time.

        The General’s Report of the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam flew the 4258.6 miles to The Champion News Mobile Office in record time:  “There was a super turnout of musical talent tonight, eighteen.  We were glad to have Dave and Sue Thompson back.  And a super pleasant surprise to have banjo player Todd Miller and his wife, singer Crystal, made their first appearance at the Vanzant Thursday night jam.” (The General is proving to be a stellar reporter and his pay envelope will reflect as much.)  What wonderful news!  Dave and Sue have been too long gone and much missed with strains of “Oh, Lost River, now I’m coming back to the potbellied stove, where the fire wood’s all stacked” hanging expectantly in the air, just waiting for the Texan and his Quebec girl to croon them out again.  The jam has been languishing without banjo for a year now since the passing of dear Norris Woods, so barber shop Todd is good news indeed and the lovely Crystal with her great voice is a gift.  Hopes are that Roberta sang “Christmas Time’s A Coming” and that all the regular musicians and their appreciators felt it warm in their hearts.  Sherri Bennett said that singing may even help you live longer, so let that be a lesson to you one and all.

Eli Lowen and Gareth Jones with friends at Sketchy Beats on Thursday.

        “Sketchy Beats Café is a not-for-profit arts café and event space on Great Junction Street, Leith.  The space is an open platform for creatives of any kind to use and share their ideas with the public.”  That is the mission statement of the café, just on the banks of the Water of Leith, where Thursday is an as open jam that this week featured an excellent array of talented musicians and poets.  The amplification was a little less magnificent this time but still could be felt well within the torso at intervals.  Christmas Eve at The Royal Oak will be sublime with the regular line up and waves of revelers surging in and out from early to early some in Santa hats and lighted Christmas jumpers (sweaters) to dazzle the eye.  In 1697, William Congreve said, “Musick has charms to sooth a savage breast , to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak…”  Aye!

        The internet shows us that Lannie Hinote is home for the holidays and out having a glorious time with family and friends.  Bonnie Brixey Mullens says that both their girls will be with her and Pete on Christmas day and that their son and his wife drove up from Elk City, OK for and early Christmas with them.  Across the country and the world, families are gathering for the joy of it.  It is that time of year.

The Royal Oak welcomes folk.

        * A Veteran who has joined with hundreds of others at the Standing Rock Reservation in defense of the Water Protectors said that he was a senior in high school when September 11th happened and he began his enlistment process that day.  He wanted to fight for right and he wanted to fight for justice.  He said that even though he joined to be a soldier he was forced to become a mercenary.  He was fighting for big oil and for the military industrial complex and he felt like his honor was stolen from him and this is his chance to take it back.  His weapons now are his words and his work in protection of an unarmed civilian population from an over-militarized police force willing to perpetrate unconscionable acts at the behest of private industry.  People across the country are divesting from companies that support the DAPL.  This Veteran says that it has been an honor to be welcomed as a nephew and a warrior of the Sioux Tribe.  Now he has a new unit to fight for.

        “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”  Albert Camus said that and the statement was shared by the charming Ms. Brook Quiet-Timber. Apply the thought to the weather, if you like, or to your spirit if it is low and discouraged because the Fat Lady sang her dreary dirge.  Do not criticize the chanteuse, and to be fair, some find hers to be the very seraph song.   “Love is where you find it.  Don’t be blind, it’s all around you everywhere…”  You just have to look carefully.  The Supreme Court may still have a say and it might turn out that the Fox is not really going to be in charge of the Ministry of Hen-house-ery.  Copies of “1984” are flying off book shelves world-wide.  For some the cautionary tale of King Midas plays well this season.  Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

        A distant Champion shares his love of grammar, “’I am the Ghost of Christmas Future Imperfect Conditional,’ said the Spirit.  ‘I bring news of what would have been going to happen if you were not to have been going to change your ways.’”  Look back through the archives at www.championnews.us to see if any ways have been changed in the last ten years.  Send your Christmas stories and hopes for the New Year to champion@championnews.us to have them read as poetry next Thursday at Sketchy Beats.  Give yourself the gift of an easy amble into the Village for a view of one of the word’s beautiful places.  It is at the end of the pavement where country lanes converge at the bottom of several sylvan hills.  Eartha Kitt sang, “Santa, Baby…..I’ve been an awful good girl…so hurry down the chimney tonight…” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

It is four miles from the Ocean Terminal to Arthur’s Seat–that
volcanic mountain in the distance at the end of this street.